Spanish galleon San José
Explosion of San José during Wager's Action. Oil on canvas by Samuel Scott
|
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 Spain
|
|
| Name: | San José |
| Builder: | Spanish Navy |
| Laid down: | 1697 |
| Launched: | 1698 |
| Fate: | Destroyed during the Battle of Barú (Wager's Action), 8 June 1708. |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Galleon |
| Tons burthen: | 1,200 tons |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Armament: |
|
San José was a 60-gun, 3-masted galleon of the Spanish Navy. It was launched in 1698, and sunk in battle off the coast of Cartagena, Colombia in 1708 while laden with gold, silver and emeralds worth about USD$1 billion (£662m) as of 2012. The sunken ship was located by the Colombian Navy in 2015.
In July 2017 it was announced that a salvage operation would go ahead.
San José was designed by Francisco Antonio Garrote and built by Pedro de Aróstegui at the shipyard at Mapil, Usurbil, Spain. Construction started in 1697 and ended in 1698. They built twin ships simultaneously and named them San José and San Joaquín.
San José and San Joaquín were part of the Spanish treasure fleet during the War of the Spanish Succession, under General José Fernández de Santillán, the Count of Casa Alegre. On its final voyage, San José sailed as the flagship of a treasure fleet composed of three Spanish warships and 14 merchant vessels sailing from Portobelo, Panama to Cartagena, Colombia. On 8 June 1708, the fleet encountered a British squadron near Barú, leading to a battle known as Wager's Action. During the battle, the powder magazines of San José detonated, destroying the ship with most of her crew and the gold, silver, emeralds and jewellery collected in the South American colonies to finance the Spanish king's war effort. Of the 600 people aboard, only eleven survived.
San José, is estimated to be worth about USD$1 billion (£662m) as of 2012, based on the speculation that it had up to 11 million 4-doubloons (11 million 8 escudos gold coins) and many silver coins on board at the time of its sinking, similar to its surviving sister ship, San Joaquín. The silver and gold were mined from the mines of Potosí, Peru.San José is called the "Holy Grail of Shipwrecks".
A group of investors from the United States called Glocca Mora Co. operating under the name 'Sea Search Armada' (SSA) claim to have found the ship off the coast of Colombia in 1981, but Colombia refused to sign a 65%/35% share offer and refused SSA permission to conduct full salvage operations at the shipwreck site. The Colombian parliament then passed a law giving the state the right to all of the treasure, leaving SSA with a 5% finder's fee, which was to be taxed at 45%. SSA sued Colombia in its own courts in 1989. In July 2007 the Supreme Court of Colombia concluded that any treasure recovered would be split equally between the Colombian government and the explorers. Sea Search Armada subsequently sued in United States courts, but the case was dismissed twice, in 2011 and 2015 on technical grounds, and the galleon declared the property of the Colombian state. The Colombian government declined to verify that the galleon was at the coordinates stated in the case.
...
Wikipedia